The English Captain Who Entered Jahangir’s Court Before England Had an Empire in India
There is a moment in the history of English engagement with Bharat that deserves to be remembered carefully, because it was not yet the story of conquest, administration, or empire; it was the moment when an English captain arrived at Surat carrying a letter from James I of England to the Mughal emperor Jahangir, asking permission for English merchants to trade in the emperor’s dominions. William Hawkins reached the bar of Surat on 24 August 1608 aboard the Hector, the first English East India Company ship to establish this early connection with Mughal India, and from Surat he eventually travelled to Agra, where he entered Jahangir’s court and remained for several years. His account, The Relations of the Occurrents which happened in the time of his Residence in India, in the Country of the Great Mogol, is therefore much more than a travel narrative; it is an extraordinary record of the moment when English commercial ambition first came face to face with the enormous political authority of the Mughal Empire.
What makes Hawkins particularly interesting is that he did not enter Bharat as a powerful European ruler meeting an equal sovereign. Quite the opposite: he arrived as the representative of a comparatively small maritime kingdom seeking commercial privileges from one of the most powerful rulers of the early modern world. He carried a royal letter and presents, but he had no army behind him that could dictate terms at Surat, and the Portuguese were already established in the Indian Ocean and determined to prevent English competition. Hawkins therefore had to negotiate, persuade, endure humiliation, travel inland, understand Mughal court politics and eventually convince Jahangir himself that English merchants could be useful to the empire. His experience gives us a fascinating glimpse of Bharat before the English acquired political power, when the English still had to ask for permission to trade.
Major Source
The Relations of the Occurrents which happened in the time of his Residence in India, in the Country of the Great Mogol
Hawkins’s narrative was preserved through the early English travel literature associated with Samuel Purchas and later edited and reproduced in collections of early English voyages. A substantial primary-source tradition also survives through manuscripts, including Egerton MS 2100, described by the British Library as a journal kept by William Hawkins during his voyage to Surat and the Hector.
His own account begins with the date and purpose of his arrival:
“At my arrivall unto the bar of Surat, being the foure and twentieth of August, 1608…”
He immediately sent word to the governor that:
“the King of England had sent me as his embassadour unto his king.”
That is where our story begins.
1. England Arrives at Surat as a Stranger
Hawkins’s first experience of Surat is revealing. He tells us that when he came ashore:
“multitudes of people following me, all desirous to see a new come people, much nominated but never came in their parts.”
Think about the historical significance of that sentence. The English had been heard of. They were not completely unknown. But they had not yet become a familiar political presence. The people of Surat were looking at strangers.
And the strangers were looking at a society whose commercial and political systems were already functioning without them. This is an important correction to later imperial narratives. The English did not arrive in India as rulers. They arrived as newcomers seeking entry.
2. Surat Was Already a Major Port
Hawkins arrived at Surat because it was already one of the great commercial ports of western India. Contemporary accounts describe Surat as one of the chief ports of India and an important centre for trade with the Red Sea, while customs at Surat and Cambay were connected directly with the Mughal treasury.
This is significant. The English did not choose Surat because it was waiting to be developed. They chose it because it was already commercially important.
There were customs officials. Merchants. Ships. Warehouses. Established routes. Connections to the Red Sea. Connections to the Persian Gulf. Connections to the wider Indian Ocean. The East India Company was therefore entering an already mature commercial network.
3. And Then Came the Portuguese
The English quickly discovered that they were not the only Europeans interested in Surat. The Portuguese had already established themselves in the Indian Ocean and regarded the arrival of English ships as a direct challenge. Hawkins records Portuguese hostility towards the English and their attempts to prevent English ships from trading.
One account records Portuguese officials asserting that:
“these seas belonged unto the King of Portugall.”
This sentence reveals the extraordinary political claim underlying the Portuguese presence. They were not merely saying:
“We trade here.” They were saying, in effect: “We control access to these seas.” The English were therefore confronting not merely an Indian commercial system but an existing European maritime power attempting to exclude them.
4. The English Ship Was More Important Than Hawkins Himself
There is an interesting irony here. Hawkins was carrying a royal letter. But the Hector itself represented something more important.
It carried: English goods, English merchants, English weapons, and English commercial ambition.
The ship was therefore a floating institution. It represented the East India Company before the Company had established any substantial territorial presence. This is an important stage in imperial history.
First comes the ship. Then the factory. Then the protected merchant community. Then political influence. Then military intervention. Then administration. Hawkins belonged to the first stage.
5. The Mughal Governor Was Not Easily Impressed
Hawkins soon discovered that carrying a letter from the King of England did not automatically give him authority. The governor of Surat, Mukarrab Khan, controlled the port and customs and had his own interests. Hawkins complained about the treatment of his goods and the difficulties imposed upon English merchants. He describes the governor as taking goods from him and paying what Hawkins considered an inadequate price.
In one particularly vivid complaint he writes:
“He came to my house three times, sweeping me cleane of all things that were good.”
This is not diplomatic language. It is an angry merchant speaking. And that is precisely why it is useful. We see the enormous distance between the formal language of royal diplomacy and the everyday reality of commercial negotiation.
6. The English Needed the Mughal State
This is where Hawkins becomes historically important. The English could not simply walk into Surat and establish themselves.
They required: permission, security, customs arrangements, access to markets, and protection from local officials and Portuguese interference.
All of these required engagement with Mughal authority. The East India Company therefore needed the state before it could begin to build an independent position. This is worth remembering because later histories sometimes make the English rise appear inevitable. It was not.
In 1608, the English were petitioners.
7. Hawkins Travels to Agra
When it became clear that the Surat governor could not resolve his problems, Hawkins was directed towards the Mughal emperor. He therefore undertook the long journey from Surat to Agra.
This journey itself tells us something. The Mughal Empire was territorially integrated enough for a foreign merchant to travel from a western port to the imperial court.
The road connected: Surat → Gujarat → northern India → Agra.
The imperial system was therefore not confined to the capital. It possessed political and commercial connections extending across enormous distances.
8. Jahangir Receives Him
When Hawkins finally reaches Jahangir, something extraordinary happens. The Mughal emperor takes an interest in him. Hawkins’s knowledge of Portuguese affairs, maritime commerce and European politics made him useful. Jahangir therefore did not treat him merely as a foreign curiosity. He brought him into the court.
Hawkins records that the emperor repeatedly encouraged him to stay, telling him:
“Thy staying would be highly for the benefit of thy nation.”
This is a remarkable statement. Jahangir understood something that would become increasingly important: a foreign merchant could become a diplomatic channel. Hawkins was not merely a person. He was a connection to England.
9. Jahangir Offered Hawkins a Position
Jahangir did not simply ask Hawkins to remain informally. He offered him:
“good maintenance”
and promised that Hawkins’s presence at court would help protect English interests. The emperor also promised substantial financial rewards. Hawkins records the emperor offering him an annual income of:
“three thousand and two hundred pounds sterling”
with further augmentation. Whether every figure in the account should be accepted literally is another question. But the episode itself is significant. The Mughal emperor was prepared to incorporate a foreign Englishman into his court structure. That tells us something about the openness and flexibility of the Mughal political system.
10. Hawkins Became a Courtier
And this is where his story becomes almost surreal. The English captain who had arrived at Surat seeking permission to trade now found himself living within the court of the Mughal emperor. He became an intermediary. He petitioned. He negotiated. He carried messages. He discussed European affairs. He interacted with nobles. He tried to obtain imperial orders for English trade. He was effectively attempting to turn personal access into institutional privilege. This is how diplomacy worked in many pre-modern courts.
The relationship was personal before it became bureaucratic.
11. Jahangir Was Interested in Europe
Hawkins’s presence also reveals Jahangir’s curiosity about the outside world. The emperor wanted information about England, the European powers and Portuguese affairs. This was not surprising.
The Mughal Empire was already connected to: Central Asia, Persia, the Ottoman world, the Indian Ocean, and European maritime powers.
The arrival of the English therefore added another element to an already international court. Jahangir did not need England. But he recognised that England could potentially be useful. That distinction is important.
12. The Mughal Court Was Already Cosmopolitan
Hawkins’s experience should be placed within the larger character of the Mughal court. He was not the first foreigner there. European Jesuits had already visited the court under Akbar. Persian officials occupied important positions. Central Asian nobles were deeply integrated into the imperial elite. Indian administrators, merchants and soldiers were part of the system. The court was therefore already cosmopolitan before the English arrived. Hawkins was entering an existing pattern of incorporating outsiders. He was not introducing cosmopolitanism to India.
13. Hawkins and His Indian Wife
Hawkins eventually married an Indian Christian woman associated with the court. The marriage itself is revealing because it shows how European individuals could become embedded within local social worlds rather than remaining permanently separate. His widow later remarried the English captain Gabriel Towerson, according to contemporary accounts. The story is a reminder that early European presence in India was not composed solely of Europeans living inside isolated compounds.
There were: marriages, language exchange, religious conversion, commercial relationships, and personal networks.
The social history of European entry into India is therefore much more complicated than the later colonial categories suggest.
14. Hawkins Had to Learn the Language of Power
One of the most important features of his account is the degree to which Hawkins had to navigate Mughal political culture. He could not simply speak as though he were addressing the English king.
He had to: petition, wait, offer gifts, seek intermediaries, observe court protocol, and cultivate influential nobles.
This tells us something about the functioning of the Mughal state. Power did not operate only through written decrees. It also operated through: access, patronage, personal relationships, ceremonial hierarchy, and court networks.
15. The Gift Economy
Hawkins repeatedly refers to presents. At one point, after receiving a ruby ring, an influential court official tells him to prepare to approach the emperor because:
“the King was alreadie wonne.”
The episode illustrates an important feature of early modern diplomacy. The gift was not merely a bribe in the modern sense. Gifts could represent: respect, status, reciprocity, access, and political relationship.
The English had to learn this system. Their diplomatic language was not enough. They needed to understand the political culture of the court.
16. The English Factory Finally Receives Permission
Eventually Hawkins obtained an imperial order permitting the English to establish a factory and trade at Surat. He records that Jahangir:
“presently granted mee the establishing of our factorie, and that the English come and freely trade for Surat.”
This sentence deserves to be placed at the centre of the story. Because this was one of the earliest major moments when English commercial activity received Mughal imperial sanction. But notice the direction of authority. The emperor granted the privilege. The English received it. The factory existed because the Mughal state permitted it. The relationship was not yet one of colonial domination. It was one of commercial petition and imperial patronage.
17. The Portuguese Tried to Destroy the Arrangement
The Portuguese were deeply concerned by the English success. They attempted to undermine Hawkins through their influence at court and through pressure on Mughal officials. Hawkins repeatedly complains about Portuguese intrigue. This reveals something important about the Indian Ocean at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The Europeans were competing with one another for access to Indian markets. Bharat was not merely the passive object of European rivalry.
The Mughal state could exploit that rivalry. If the Portuguese were troublesome, the English could potentially become useful. If the English became troublesome, another power could be preferred. The Indian rulers were not simply spectators. They were actors within the geopolitical competition.
18. Jahangir Could Play the Europeans Against One Another
This is perhaps one of the most important political insights from Hawkins. Jahangir did not need to choose between:
“India” and “Europe.”
He could choose between: Portuguese, English, Jesuits, Persians, Central Asians, Gujaratis, Armenians, and others depending upon the circumstances. The court therefore operated within a wider international system. Foreigners competed for imperial favour. The emperor could use that competition. This is not colonial dependency.
It is imperial brokerage.
19. Yet Hawkins Eventually Failed
Despite his privileged position, Hawkins’s mission did not produce everything he wanted. The Portuguese continued to obstruct English interests. Court factions opposed him. The privileges granted to him were not always implemented locally. The emperor’s promises did not automatically translate into bureaucratic compliance. Eventually Hawkins left the Mughal court. This is extremely important.
A royal order did not necessarily mean perfect implementation.
The Mughal Empire was not a machine in which every command travelled automatically from the emperor to the local official. There were: intermediaries, factions, regional interests, officials, and competing networks.
This gives us a more realistic understanding of imperial governance.
20. The Difference Between Sovereignty and Administration
Hawkins’s difficulties at Surat illustrate a classic problem. The emperor could grant a privilege. The governor could obstruct it. The English could complain. The Portuguese could interfere. A courtier could intervene. The emperor could issue another order. The process could continue. This means that political power existed at several levels.
Imperial authority was real.
But its implementation depended upon institutions and individuals. This is precisely the kind of complexity that civilizational analysis should examine rather than reducing the Mughal Empire to a single centralised state.
21. Hawkins’s Description of Jahangir
Hawkins provides a remarkably personal portrait of Jahangir. He describes the emperor’s habits, his court, his drinking, his hunting and his interactions with nobles. His account is sometimes judgemental, and his own frustrations inevitably shape his portrayal. Therefore, his observations should be compared with Jahangir’s own memoir, the Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri and other Persian sources. But the comparison itself is valuable. The Mughal emperor can be seen through: his own voice, a foreign ambassador’s eyes, court histories, European missionaries, and administrative documents.
Civilizational Studies becomes richer when these voices are brought together.
22. Hawkins Was Not an Objective Observer
This must be said clearly. Hawkins was not writing anthropology. He was an English captain whose primary purpose was to advance English interests. He was frustrated by Portuguese interference. He was frustrated by Mughal officials. He wanted privileges for the East India Company. He wanted compensation. He wanted recognition. He wanted influence.
Therefore, his description of Mughal officials can be extremely hostile. When he describes someone as corrupt or dishonest, we should ask: Is this an objective observation, or the complaint of a merchant whose business has been obstructed?
Sometimes it may be both. That is why source criticism matters.
23. Yet His Complaints Are Historically Valuable
The very fact that Hawkins complains tells us something about the administrative environment.
We learn: which offices mattered, which officials controlled customs, how merchants interacted with governors, how gifts functioned, how imperial orders were transmitted, how foreign merchants negotiated, and how local officials could resist or reinterpret imperial commands.
His frustrations therefore become evidence. A complaint can reveal an institution.
24. The Mughal Empire Was Not Closed to Foreigners
Hawkins’s entire experience demonstrates this.
The Mughal court: received him, listened to him, employed him, gave him status, considered his requests, and allowed English commercial activity.
This does not mean that the empire was “liberal” in a modern sense. That would be anachronistic. It means that the Mughal state was capable of absorbing foreign individuals and foreign commercial groups when it considered them useful.
That is a more historically precise statement.
25. The English Were Learning How to Enter the Indian System
This is perhaps the deeper story behind Hawkins. The English initially tried to enter through: royal diplomacy.
Then: personal relationships.
Then: imperial farmans.
Then: factories.
Then: commercial privileges.
This was the beginning of an institutional presence. The later English empire would use many different methods. But the earliest stage was much more humble. Permission to trade.
26. Hawkins’s Story Is Therefore a Story of Dependence
This is the part that later imperial histories often obscure.
In 1608–1613: The English depended upon Mughal permission. They depended upon local officials. They depended upon Indian merchants. They depended upon Indian markets. They depended upon Indian ports. They depended upon Indian shipbuilders and sailors. They depended upon Indian political stability. They depended upon the willingness of Indian rulers to tolerate them. The balance of power had not yet shifted decisively.
The English needed Bharat more than Bharat needed the English.
That is what Hawkins’s story makes visible.
27. Yet Seeds of a Different Future Were Already Present
And here lies the irony. The very privileges the English sought could later become the foundations of something much larger. A factory gives merchants a permanent base. A permanent base creates information networks. Information creates political influence. Political influence creates military alliances. Military alliances create territorial opportunities. Territorial opportunities create administration. Administration creates empire. The process was not inevitable. But the institutional pathway was beginning.
Hawkins stands near the beginning of that pathway.
28. Why Hawkins Matters for Civilizational Studies
Hawkins is important because he allows us to see Bharat before the English empire existed. He arrived with a letter. He sought permission. He negotiated. He waited. He petitioned. He gave gifts. He entered the Mughal court. He obtained an imperial order. He struggled with local officials. He fought Portuguese interference. And finally, he left. Nothing about this resembles the later image of an English colonial government ruling India. And yet, within this apparently modest story, we can see the first institutional threads of what would eventually become a much larger historical transformation.
Hawkins therefore gives us a crucial lesson about historical change: Empires rarely begin by announcing themselves as empires.
Sometimes they begin with a merchant asking for permission to open a shop. Sometimes they begin with a ship asking to enter a port. Sometimes they begin with a royal letter. Sometimes they begin with a factory. And sometimes the people receiving that request do not yet have any reason to imagine what that small request might eventually become. But we should also resist the temptation to read history backwards and pretend that the outcome was inevitable.
In 1608, William Hawkins was not the ruler of India.
He was an English captain standing before the Mughal state, asking for permission to trade. The Mughal emperor could grant his request. The Mughal officials could obstruct it. The Portuguese could challenge it. The English could leave. The future was still open. And perhaps this is the most important reason to read Hawkins today.
He captures the moment before power changed hands. A moment when England was still knocking at the door of Bharat’s commercial world. And Bharat, through the Mughal Empire, still possessed the authority to decide:
Who may enter, who may trade, and on what terms.
That is the world Hawkins actually encountered. The empire came later.
